A joint statement to be issued at talks on Iran’s nuclear program will say enough progress has been reached to continue the negotiations until a final deadline of June 30, according to a text seen by Reuters.

The statement is to be issued by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that all-night nuclear talks between Iran and major powers made “significant progress,” but there is no “final result yet.”

“We don’t have any final result yet,” Zarif told reporters in Switzerland. The six powers “have to examine among themselves the results of the negotiations. We don't know yet the result of those discussions.”

“This should happen this morning,” he said. “If these solutions are approved, it is expected that there will be a joint declaration made by me and Mrs (Federica) Mogherini,” the EU foreign policy chief, Zarif said.

“There will be a statement to the press which should be announced but the text still has to be worked on,” Zarif said.

The talks are aimed at agreeing the outlines of a major deal to be finalized by June 30 to ease concerns that Iran might develop nuclear weapons under the guise of civilian program, an aim it denies.

Zarif said that the “real task” of hammering out this highly technical and complex final accord in the next three months will be a “difficult and immense task.”

Major powers and Iran negotiated into the early hours of Thursday on Tehran’s nuclear program two days past their deadline, with diplomats saying prospects for a preliminary agreement were finely balanced between success and collapse.

The negotiations, aimed at blocking Iran’s capacity to build a nuclear bomb in exchange for lifting sanctions, have become bogged down over crucial details of the accord, even as the broad outlines of an agreement have been reached.

After negotiators passed an original self-imposed deadline of midnight on Tuesday, they remained locked in talks through to the early hours of Thursday in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

“It is going to be long,” said a senior diplomat.

Marie Harf, spokeswoman for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said on her Twitter account that negotiators had stopped at 6.00 a.m local time (0400 GMT) for a break and would resume in a few hours.

Kerry and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said they would stay at least until Thursday in an effort to seal the “political” agreement, a milestone towards a final pact due by the end of June.

In a potentially hopeful sign, French Foreign Secretary Laurent Fabius returned for more talks after flying back to Paris the previous day because progress had been too slow.

“We are a few meters from the finishing line, but it's always the last meters that are the most difficult. We will try and cross them,” he said on his return. “We want a robust and verifiable agreement and there are still points where there needs to be progress especially on the Iranian side.”

One diplomat close to the talks said late on Wednesday that a deal could be announced within hours but had not yet been reached, and the talks could still fall apart.

Ministers and experts shuffled from meeting to meeting, but there appeared to still not be a breakthrough. There was no full ministerial session overnight.
Under pressure
Six world powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - aim to stop Iran from gaining the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb. Tehran wants to lift international sanctions that have crippled its economy, while preserving what it views as its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

The powers and Iran said they had moved closer, but both sides accused the other of refusing to offer proposals that would break the deadlock.

The talks - the culmination of a 12-year process - have become hung up on the issues of Iran's nuclear centrifuge research, details on the lifting of U.N. sanctions and how they would be re-imposed if Iran breached the agreement.

All sides are under pressure not to go home empty handed, but Washington reiterated on Wednesday it was willing to walk away if the sides couldn’t agree on a preliminary framework. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington: “the time has come for Iran to make some decisions.”

The talks represent the biggest chance of rapprochement between Iran and the United States since the Iranian revolution in 1979, but face skepticism from conservatives in both nations’ capitals.

Washington’s allies in the region, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia, are also deeply wary of any deal.

Even if there is a preliminary deal, it will be fragile and incomplete and there is no guarantee of a final deal in the coming months.

By Al Arabiya